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Native American Provost Speaks About Her ‘Love of Learning’

ICTMN Staff

9/28/11

Barbara Morris

In March, Fort Lewis College (FLC) in Durango, Colorado named Barbara Morris its new provost and vice president of academic affairs—the first woman and first Native American provost at the school. She took over for Stephen Roderick, who retired, July 1.

Before joining FLC, Morris was the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Redlands in Redlands, California. She has a bachelor’s degree in political science from San Diego State University and earned her master’s and Ph.D. degrees in political science from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

According to her bio on the colleges website, her research “centers on both gendered institutions and leadership and re-instilling harmony back to Indian tribes. She believes the Native American symbol of the circle best illustrates her desire for a process of decision-making that is based on mutual understanding, respect, communication and a shared commitment.”

In a recent YouTube video (below) posted by FLCFAN, Morris discusses her “love of learning” by saying she “could have stayed in college forever, which when you become a professor, you do. I think that’s how it started my career, I just really had a love of learning and I wanted to take every class in the catalog.”

She goes on to say that she accepted the position at FLC because she appreciates the school’s commitment to serving underrepresented stereotypes.

“The more you can break typical barriers of race and gender, that’s a good thing.”

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I know YouTube videos are, for some reason, suppose to be low-fi, meaning down and dirty, but really, can we try to at least properly mic people for interviews instead of using the crappy built in microphones on these cheap little cameras. The room noise and hiss in this interview is totally unacceptable poor quality. Look at her professional headshot for this article, very nice photo, but when it comes to video quality the attitude seems to be "who cares."